Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 60

A moment ago.

Zhou Qian and his party left the plant that emitted the eerie cries for help and continued to head south.

As they walked, Ke Yuxiao was the first to encounter a problem. He paused, feeling great pain on the back of his hand.

Quickly lifting his hand to look, he watched as a black hole appeared on it. A grass, moving like a sentient blood vessel, suspiciously moved under the skin of his hand before finding the black hole and… abruptly crawled out from within.

Finally, it even shook a little, as if it was satisfied with the current situation—it had sprouted from inside.

At this moment, Zhou Qian and Qi Liuxing had also stopped, both frowning at this curious scene.

Judging by the life points, Ke Yuxiao was the third from the last and also the third to exhibit strange changes after Wu Ren and Situ Qing. After watching the strange grass for a while, Qi Liuxing reached out his hand, seemingly wanting to touch it, but fearing injuring Ke Yuxiao, he eventually retracted his hand.

This grass was probably now a part of Ke Yuxiao’s flesh and blood, so it absolutely couldn’t be carelessly pulled or cut off.

Moreover, unlike the green color of ordinary grass, this grass was more of a dark green, with a more complex texture on it, like the strange patterns on marble or batik, even having some artistic beauty.

“Wait a minute—” After a moment, the one who spoke was Zhou Qian. “Have any of you noticed… that this grass looks very familiar?”

“Familiar as in…” Qi Liuxing didn’t understand his meaning for a moment.

Zhou Qian side-glanced at Qi Liuxing. “We passed a meadow earlier. It had a lot of this kind of grass.”

Qi Liuxing: “Eh?”

“I think you two were too busy chatting and didn’t notice.”

Zhou Qian shook his head and walked back the way they came, wanting to go back and check for further confirmation.

After walking briskly back for about half a minute, Zhou Qian stopped and pointed.

Following his finger’s direction, this time Qi Liuxing did indeed see the part of the grass hidden in the strange forest. There were so many bizarre plants here that a patch of dark green, intricately textured grass didn’t seem out of place among a bunch of exotic plants; it was even amazing that Zhou Qian noticed it.

“Let’s go. Let’s get closer and have a look.” Saying this, Zhou Qian took a few steps forward.

But the moment he stepped onto the dark green lawn, he felt something was wrong—the air here was extremely unpleasant, almost pungent. He looked at the card, noting the life points, and saw that the countdown had indeed accelerated rapidly.

Turning his head, he saw Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao walking towards him. Zhou Qian seriously shook his head at them and then led them back to the main path, quickly opening the system map to take a look.

On the map, all the explored areas were clearly visible and could be marked by players. The unexplored places were still in a non-displayed state.

Zhou Qian reviewed the route they had just taken on the map and marked the area where the dark green grass was located with a red mark, noting it as “Life Points Rapid Reduction Area”.

“I temporarily don’t know why the grass on Ke Yuxiao’s hand is the same as the one here. Xiao Qi, keep an eye on his condition in case of any accidents.”

After reminding them of this, Zhou Qian held the Rib of God in his hand, turned around, and headed south again.

Their primary goal now was to find the purification station to increase life points. The exploration of clues can be put on hold for now.

This time, after about a minute and a half, Zhou Qian finally entered a relatively open area.

It was a large wetland-like area.

They had been walking in a dense forest, and the already tall trees had become even more colossal and robust after mutation, blocking out the sun and making the area poorly lit with limited visibility.

Now it was different. The wetlands were vast, with no tall trees in the middle, providing excellent visibility. Looking up, they could see meadows, lakes, low shrubs, and some exposed mud pits.

It wasn’t yet evening at this time, and the weather was still quite bright. The sky was clear, extending into the endless blue, meeting the green wetlands in the distance, and ultimately forming a light gray.

Such a scene, ordinarily common, became anomalous, surrounded by bizarre plants.

“Moving further, we need to be careful. There could very likely be swamps hidden in this wetland.”

After Zhou Qian said this, he didn’t hear any reply.

He frowned and looked back. There was no one behind him. Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao had actually disappeared.

What happened?

He didn’t hear any noises, so how could they have disappeared?

Zhou Qian raised his wrist, about to try to contact Qi Liuxing through the system, but found the system to be completely blank.

He blinked again. Even the watch on his wrist had disappeared.

Zhou Qian almost immediately realized that he had unwittingly entered some kind of illusion.

Whether this was a trap inherent to the instance itself, Zhou Qian wasn’t sure.

Fortunately, his consciousness was still clear.

Soon he heard voices that should never appear here—

“Raise!”

“I’m all in!!”

“Hahaha, Lao Zhang, you’re likely going to bleed a lot today!”

Zhou Qian was all too familiar with such voices—a casino.

He had been exposed to gambling since he was a child, influenced by his father Zhou Chongshan.

He had been to the casino too many times.

Currently, Zhou Qian had only heard the noise of the casino, yet he was still in the wetland.

But soon the scenario changed. The surroundings, like a colorful ink painting, had water splashed onto it. The colors mixed and rotated, becoming distorted, sticky, and mixed. Eventually, the whole painting turned gray black but in a flash, a new scene was painted—

Zhou Qian had arrived at the casino.

He saw himself, who was less than 10 years old.

From a viewpoint high above, Zhou Qian watched his younger self carried by his father, step by step, enter the casino.

Then, at some point, as if his soul had descended, Zhou Qian fell from the void and into his younger self, viewing this strangely lively and subtly dangerous world from the eyes of his younger self.

Zhou Qian had been pretty since he was a child; his eyes were particularly attractive and clear. When he stared innocently, he appeared pure and naïve.

Such a him, whether in temperament or age, seemed utterly out of place in the casino, but Zhou Chongshan didn’t care and brought him in anyway.

Dice, poker, colorful cocktails, joyful shouts, sad and angry roars… The casino, filled with all kinds of novelties, was an incredibly novel world for the young Zhou Qian.

This bizarre world made him curious but also frightened.

But perhaps inherently fond of such games, Zhou Qian, held by Zhou Chongshan, watched them play cards and began to calculate in his mind. Gradually, he found it enjoyable and forgot his fear.

At this moment, a game of poker was unfolding.

Zhou Chongshan was at a crucial stage of a game against a pot-bellied middle-aged man.

“Raise?” The man asked.

A bead of sweat dropped from Zhou Chongshan’s forehead, but he decisively said, “All in.”

“Lao Zhou, let’s play big. I’ll add ten million more. You can add a little more. Do dare you?”

“Ha… Lao Zhang, you’re really in high spirits today. What do you want?”

“Your son!”

The one called “Lao Zhang” looked at Zhou Qian, who was less than 10 years old, with a sort of sticky, sinister gaze, then he said with a husky voice, “If you lose, give your son to me. Do you dare?”

Zhou Chongshan was stunned for a moment, but soon he decisively said, “What would I not dare? Hahaha—”

Inside the casino, the hustle and bustle continued.

Zhou Chongshan didn’t notice that Zhou Qian, whom he was holding with one hand, instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

Zhou Qian’s gaze seemed unchanged, appearing to be in some kind of vacant state, still looking innocent. Only, this time, within the innocence, there was also a touch of confusion. Not a single so-called adult present, who saw his gaze, knew—in fact, he understood everything.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>